Many people on blogs and comments have said they felt that these guys at Intelius deserve to be in jail. Read the TechCrunch story and the various comments and decide for yourself. There are also numerous web site where consumers have complained about these guys.

Intelius claims to offer background checks and public information. It’s pretty clear that all they do is to scrape public data and repackage and sell. All by itself, that is a legitimate service, but for them that is just a vehicle for a scam. All consumers should be pleased that TechCrunch did a background check on them, and found what a fraud they were,

By the way, there are 100's of honest and ethical background check firm around that do a great job.

Intelius IS a scam!!! DO NOT - I repeat - DO NOT use them! Not only is the information they provide out of date and nearly useless, but they give your information to a company called Adaptive Marketing (AP9 PrivacyMatters, IK9 Privacy Matters and 123 Privacy Matters / 1-2-3 Privacy Matters), which "claims" to be a credit monitoring service. They actually obtained account information for a completely different card than was used to charge the Intelius purchase... suddenly numerous unauthorized charges began to appear from companies like NetFlix, Blockbuster, Grant Academy, and more. We also started receiving about 10 calls a day from companies claiming we requested information from them. They had our name, address, and phone number, but the email address used to request the information was dz12@gmail.com - a dummy address obviously. Check out these quotes from their site:"Where applicable, that a consumer need not provide Adaptive Marketing LLC® his or her billing information in order to be charged a membership fee" ----> OBVIOUSLY!!! They use the info you provide to Intelius to access your financial information via the front of a "credit monitoring service" (even though their website is clearing a marketing scam to solicit money through unwanted offers you supposedly requested)."Offer a “no-questions-asked” refund policy for unauthorized charge complaints that provides a full and prompt refund for any member who is charged a fee but claims he or she did not authorize it."Why in the heck would they even have a statement like that on their website if they were legitimate? Ridiculous!!!"At Adaptive Marketing, we help consumers save on a wide variety of home, family and small-business needs while offering revenue-generating opportunities to our business partners at the same time.Our subscription-based membership programs can significantly reduce out-of-pockets costs related to healthcare, personal security, shopping and family entertainment. Plus, each program is fully customizable to help our partners build brand loyalty with their customers and enjoy increased incremental revenue for their bottom lines."Riiiiiiiiiight...SCAM - Plain and simple. BEWARE of ALL of the company names listed above... it's a chain scam with one company hiding another company and so on!

Just list a few, and I wonder where do they get the information for the background reports?

Concerend Consumer wrote:

Intelius Revealed as a scamIt turns out that the facts are in and there is no question that Intelius is a scam. What they do is outright theft from consumers. For all of the details, see the excellent blog at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/29/naveen-j...Many people on blogs and comments have said they felt that these guys at Intelius deserve to be in jail. Read the TechCrunch story and the various comments and decide for yourself. There are also numerous web site where consumers have complained about these guys.Intelius claims to offer background checks and public information. It’s pretty clear that all they do is to scrape public data and repackage and sell. All by itself, that is a legitimate service, but for them that is just a vehicle for a scam. All consumers should be pleased that TechCrunch did a background check on them, and found what a fraud they were,By the way, there are 100's of honest and ethical background check firm around that do a great job.

I ran a check on myself at Intellius. It listed some correct information, but most of the cities I'd never lived in, most of the phone numbers I never had, most of the IP addresses I probably never used since they change constantly. Almost all of the people listed as "possible associates" were people I'd never heard of, and the rest were neighbors or people who lived at that address before or after I did and I either never met or briefly met. They had my place of birth wrong (good!), and showed me as being fined for "public intoxication" in a city I've never even been in. That got the the letter from my attorney, and now my file is virtually empty and what is there is accurate and doesn't bother me much. I even made them block out my social security number, birth date, and current address. Someone really ought to present this to some "ambulance chaser" who could sue those idiot for tens of millions or more in a class action suit defending probably almost ALL Americans (except undocumented aliens, only us law abiding American citizens must suffer this unGodly, unnatural, perverse use of technology).

This insidious means of milking money from innocent, well meaning consumers is disgusting. Jain is a piece of human garbage that will end up in prison.

"Post Transaction Marketing" for personal gain is abhorrent at best. Any one that even thinks of doing business with Jain is asking to be completely scammed. Beware of Intelius and anything this company is involved with.

Now these guys are offering some sort of IPod app with instant information. Not only a scam for the user, but an open invitation for criminals and stalkers. The brave new world is here. More scams form Intelius?

I too have been scammed in North Dakota - exactly like described in these comments.Please do what you can to stop them - I will too.

Concerend Consumer wrote:

Intelius Revealed as a scamIt turns out that the facts are in and there is no question that Intelius is a scam. What they do is outright theft from consumers. For all of the details, see the excellent blog at: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/29/naveen-j...Many people on blogs and comments have said they felt that these guys at Intelius deserve to be in jail. Read the TechCrunch story and the various comments and decide for yourself. There are also numerous web site where consumers have complained about these guys.Intelius claims to offer background checks and public information. It’s pretty clear that all they do is to scrape public data and repackage and sell. All by itself, that is a legitimate service, but for them that is just a vehicle for a scam. All consumers should be pleased that TechCrunch did a background check on them, and found what a fraud they were,By the way, there are 100's of honest and ethical background check firm around that do a great job.

Please be aware Intellius is getting ready to launch another service called Date Check. The premise is a person can use their cell phone to do a background check of the person their getting ready to date or already dating. Keep in mind that unless you have a social security number it is unlikely that you will get a good report.The Fair Credit Reporting Act does not allow individuals to run Consummer reports utilizing the Social Security number on other individuals. You must be considered a CRA (Consumer Reporting Agency)and have a valid reason for doing so. Dating someone does not constitute a valid reason for running a report. You must be an employer, Bank, mortgage company etc to run reports with social security numbers.

I am glad that you feel threatened by intelius...Do keep in mind that everyone in the united States can go in to any court house and get a background check on you...... So making it easy by puting it online makes all the sense in the world.

wish I had read this BEFORE I tried the site, now stuck with $100 charge for bogus info -- apparently every time I clicked on one of the buttons (trying to figure out what it was) I was getting charged another fee....DON'T go anywhere on their site, you will regret it!

I used the Intelius service to obtain the phone number of a fraternity brother I had lost contact with. I paid $1.95 for an old disconnected phone number. I asked for a refund and was told only credits are available - for what? More old data?

I too ran a search on myself, using Intellius as I was determining what site I could use to vet employees/tenants. I was outraged at the fact that I had filed bankruptcy (NEVER...credit score in high 700's) and other derrogatory and incorrect info. Needless to say, I chose not to use Intellius. It is time to stop this intrusion into American's lives....PERIOD. Intellius is a scam and the attorney general US needs to stop them specifically, but also tackle the amount of info (correct and incorrect) that is allowed to be made public record by any entity. It is just wrong for companies to make $$$ off the "details" of my private life.

I have used Intelius tons and never had a problem. Sometimes the info isn't 100% accurate, but it's public record - what do you expect!If you don't want the monthly subscription, just pay the regular price and don't accept the promotion. Not that hard, just read. Or, if you decide to take the promotion, just make sure you cancel within the 7 day trial and you won't be charged.If you watched your personal finances better, you'd know you've been billed for 6 months.

I was scammed by them for $19.95, but was able to get a refund. I called and explained my issue (mostly that I did not intend to make this purchase and I didn't feel it was fair that I was being charged.) They went into their spiel about how it was too late for a refund, but I could still use the service, plus the account had already been cancelled. They have been trained well. I was pretty sure the woman I spoke with was reading right off a script. Anyway, I asked for her name, she got a little rattled. I then said I was disputing the charges with the bank and she got real cooperative. They don't want the bank involved. I had a second ace up my sleeve which was to file a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General (the company is based in Wash.) She was being so cooperative I didn't want to use it, but I figured best to let her know I was serious. When she said she would send it to accounting but could not be sure I would get a refund, I said I would hold off on filing a complaint with the AG to see if I got it. I got it 5 days later. Get a refund don't stand for this thievery.

Intellus is an absolute rip off. I ordered a background check and they automatically signed me up for a $19.99 identity theft service that I didn't notice on my credit card bill to several months later. They will not offer you a refund even though they have provided no actual service. Also, I had to call 3 times and they still did not cancel my "subscription"...I had to cancel my credit card to make the charges stop. Do not order any products through Intellus or you will regret the charges and the hassle!

Intelius CEO Naveen Jain is an international criminal, has a long history of perpetrating fraud, and should have been jailed years ago. Don't believe me? Google "naveen jain" and "fraud", and see how many hits you get. It's time to put this pile of sub-human excrement where he belongs. This piece of sh*t needs a fat bounty on his head. As in old-west style. It's a shame that this two-bit chav consumes oxygen, when there are higher-order, more evolved types of life far more deserving of it, such as the bacteria feasting on feces in your toilet.-SC

Unfortunately, as i read through these blogs i have noticed two common traits. First is apparently my mother was the only person around telling her kids to NEVER sign ANY CONTRACT without reading, and second, sadly a lack of basic spelling ability. Most computers these days auto spell check or require a short command, if you cannot do that much to be taken seriously when you speak up a would urge you to stay off the internet, its NOT a safe place for you. I use Intelius regularly and have an 80-90% success rate and since i read EVERYTHING i did not get signed up for anything i didn't want, PLEASE, TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS OR TAKE A HIKE, I DO NOT ACCEPT THIS FROM MY SIX YEAR OLD AND I HOLD ADULTS TO THE SAME

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